


It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

by ObliqueOptimism



Series: Baby (You've Got What It Takes) [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Can be read as a stand alone, Christmas, Gen, Holidays, Kid Fic, M/M, Parent Klaus Hargreeves, Sober Klaus Hargreeves, Unreliable Narrator, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-18 07:36:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21890578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObliqueOptimism/pseuds/ObliqueOptimism
Summary: It might not be Christmas yet, but that wouldn't stop them from baking, playing in the snow, or snuggling.Holiday shenanigans are afoot.[Can be read as a stand alone]
Relationships: Dave/Klaus Hargreeves
Series: Baby (You've Got What It Takes) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1576855
Comments: 35
Kudos: 288





	It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

**Author's Note:**

> happy holidays everyone! i had to write a holiday fic for Jackson! i hope everyone is having a good end of the year, you all deserve it.

Klaus woke up to Jackson climbing on him, which was not at all unusual. Little palms dug into his stomach, making him let out a quiet ‘oof’, “Daddy! Dave!” Klaus heard Dave let out a tired grunt. The poor man wasn’t a morning person, but with a four year old around that would have to change fast. “It’s Christmas! Merry Christmas!”

It wasn’t Christmas. “No baby, it just snowed last night.” 

“Oh, okay Daddy,” Jackson said, sounding like he didn’t believe him. 

“It’s only December 10th, lovebug. Christmas isn’t until the 25th,” Klaus explained. “Remember how we’ve been marking the calendar?”

“But it's all white out!” Jackson argued back, rolling so he was in between Klaus and Dave. “Like Christmas.”

Dave looked like he was still trying to sleep. Klaus sighed and took pity on his boyfriend, “Let’s go to the calendar.” He scooped his son up and rested him no his hip, leaving Dave roll over and let out a tired groan. 

They went to the calendar, Klaus explaining again how snow doesn’t mean it's Christmas. Then they started making breakfast. Jackson worked the toaster while Klaus scrambled eggs with food dye in it to make them green and kept an eye on Jackson and the toaster. When they were done with that, Klaus took two of his serving trays and gave one to Jackson, putting Dave’s plate on Jackson’s tray, along with some coffee. “Careful, baby. Don’t want to spill his coffee.”

Klaus got his and Jackson’s food and drink on his, “Shall we go wake him?”

“Yes! Suns up!” Jackson started an excited wiggle but froze when a bit of coffee splashed. “Daddy said _careful, baby._ ” He then started to walk _very_ slow. 

Klaus sighed as they moved at a snail's pace. Everything was going to be cold by the time they got to the bedroom. 

Klaus nudged the door back open with his shoulder and Jackson said, “Surprise! Dave! Suns up!”

Dave grumbled but raised his head. He smiled slowly, fully, “What a good surprise.” Yawning he sat up. He reached out and took the tray from Jackson when he got close enough. 

“That one’s Dave’s,” Jackson informed him, climbing into bed and leaning against Dave. “You have toast and eggs! Eggs are green. Daddy made them green with his magic.”

Klaus sat down on the other side and put their tray between him and Jackson, “Morning Dave.”

“Morning sunshine, starshine. Thank you for breakfast,” Dave yawned again. 

“I made toast,” Jackson pointed at the toast. 

“You did?” Dave questioned, “Looks like you did an amazing job at it.” He picked up his sort of full coffee cup and took a sip. He made a face.

Klaus raised his eyebrows at Dave, “If you had gotten up--” he left the sentence hang. But was clear. If he had gotten up the food and coffee wouldn’t be cold.

Dave shrugged and just smiled at Klaus over Jackson’s head. 

The three ate the cold food, chatting lightly. 

“Snow is my favorite!” Jackson said, “It’s so sparkly in the sun! Can we play, daddy?”

“Sure baby, we can play in the snow later,” Klaus agreed. “We’ll go to the park this afternoon.”

“Want to bake some cookies with me this morning, starshine?” Dave asked, making a face when he ate the cold, green eggs.

“Cookies! Please Dave! Can we? Cookies then pretty snow!” Jackson clapped, toast crumbs flying from his hands all over the bed.

Klaus sighed. The drawback of breakfast in bed was _breakfast in the bed_. He could wash the bedding while the two baked.

After breakfast, Dave was the one to scoop Jackson up, giving him some tickles as they made their way to the kitchen. Klaus busied himself with the laundry, but hung out watching the two bake when he could. 

Dave explained that it was his grandma’s shortbread recipe, they made it during the holidays.

“Christmas!” Jackson declared.

“Actually we didn’t celebrate Christmas, starshine. I’m Jewish. We had different celebrations. In the winter we had Chanukah,” Dave explained.

Jackson frowned, thinking. “No Santa?”

Dave paused, “You don’t need to worry, Jacky. Santa will still be coming for you!” He tickled him some more. “Ready to bake?”

“Yes! Hands washed first! Yes?” Jackson pointed at the sink.

“Right!” Dave agreed, giving Klaus a wink as he walked towards the door, hands full of the laundry basket. Their apartment had a laundry room in the basement, another reason why this apartment was better than the first place he’d gotten for him and Jackson.

When he came back up they had gotten started. His son was covered in flour and his boyfriend has a little handprint on his cheek. Jackson was standing on the stool next to the counter and his tongue was poking out as he mixed the dough. 

Klaus was overcome with happiness.

Five years ago he would have been out in the snow, trying to find shelter so he wouldn’t freeze. Not caring about himself, only caring about drugs and how he’d get his next high. How he managed to better himself was a miracle. Jackson was his miracle baby, that was for sure. He was actually happy. He had a warm home, a perfect son, a loving boyfriend.

Sometimes Klaus would wake up and think he was in a dream. There was no way this was his life. He was giddy to get up and live. Other times he would have low days, thinking he didn’t deserve the life he’d made for himself. Thankfully on those days Jackson would pull him out of his funk, usually with the first dimple smile of the morning.

His baby was the love of his life.

Before Jackson, Christmas was just a thing to take note of. They’d never celebrated it growing up. After Grace came into their lives, she tried. She would put up a tree and she managed to get Reginald to agree to one gift for each child. Usually it wasn’t anything any of them wanted, always something boring and practical that they would have been provided with anyway. Grace would sneak each of them an actual gift though, bought with her own money. It was nice.

Since running away from home, all Christmas meant was more volunteers at soup kitchens. 

But his son deserved what Klaus never got. He’d gotten ahold of a cheap tree and a few ornaments the first year. It wasn’t a great Christmas. But each year he’d built up more for his baby. They’d already decorated the tree for this year, apartment full of fairy lights. It was cozy. 

Next year they would have to have Dave teach them about Chanukah. 

Klaus was frozen, realizing he was planning on Dave still being around next year. Soft giggles caught his attention. They were rolling their cookies in some sort of mixture. He thought he remembered Dave talking about needing to buy some ground pecans and making sure Klaus had cinnamon.

This was--

This was something he had. Warmth from the ovens, from the soft clothing, the heat of the apartment, keeping the cold at bay. _His family._

“Can we please add green sprinkles?” Jackson asked.

“That is an amazing idea, Jacky!” Dave agreed, going to where the sprinkles were kept, handing over the shaker of the small green sugar sprinkles. 

Jackson went to town with the sprinkles. The shaker holes were too large for the small sprinkles, so he was very heavy handed with them. Some of the sprinkles even made it on the cookies.

“All done! In the oven with them!” Jackson declared. 

After they got put in the oven, Jackson saw Klaus, “Daddy! We making cookies! Did you know?”

“You are? That’s wonderful! They will be great later with hot chocolate when we get back from playing in the snow,” Klaus said, picking Jackson up. “Let’s get you cleaned up while Dave cleans the kitchen, okay?”

“But I’m clean now!”

“I would beg to differ, lovebug. You’re covered in flour. Look,” Klaus gestured to some flour that had fallen off Jackson and onto him, “its spreading.”

Jackson gasped, “Oopsie!”

“It cleans up. You know the rules, right? It’s one of the newer ones we’ve added.”

Jackson nodded, “It’s okay to make messes! They can be cleaned up!”

“That’s right! Messes are okay! Messing up is okay too. Daddy has messed up a lot but I’m okay, right?” 

“No,” Jackson disagreed when they entered the bathroom. “You’re better than okay! You’re the bestest!”

“Thank you lovebug, but how can I be the bestest if _you’re the bestest?_ ” Klaus started cleaning them up. 

Jackson rolled his eyes, “Easy, daddy! You’re the bestest daddy and I’m the bestest baby!”

Klaus laughed, “Oh, of course!”

Klaus cleaned them up and when they went back out Dave had the kitchen clean. Jackson busied himself with his toys while Klaus and Dave shared a warm cup of coffee. Then Klaus had to finish up the laundry while Dave took the cookies out.

After lunch it was time to go play in the snow.

Klaus had made them all hats, scarves, and mittens. He’d made sure to use yarn with sparkles in it for Jackson’s. 

“Lovebug, we gotta get you all dressed for the snow,” he grabbed the snow gear. Tiny red snow pants, a purple winter coat. The multicolor sparkly yarn for the hat and scarf. “I made something new for you this year, baby. You ready?”

Jackson clapped, his coat making a _slick swoosh_ sound as he moved, “Please daddy!”

Klaus pulled out some new mittens he’d made. They were, of course, still sparkly but he made sure Jackson could see the back of the mittens. “Can you read these baby?”

Jackson gasped, “H-I. That one says HI. Daddy it’s like your HELLO!”

“And this one?”

“B-Y-E. BYE! Daddy! It’s like your tattoos!” He was wiggling in his excitement. “You _are_ the bestest! I knew it!”

Klaus slipped the mittens on Jackson and then they went down the few blocks to the park.

As soon as they entered the park, Jackson let himself fall backwards into the snow and promptly made his first snow angel. 

Before he got up, Jackson made both Klaus and Dave make snow angels on either side of him. 

Jackson then got up and ran around, eating some snow, talking about how sparkly it was. He glanced at a group of older kids playing and seemed to debate if he wanted to join them. Klaus thought their snowball fight would be too fast paced for the four year old, “Want to make a snowman with me and Dave?”

“Not snowman, _snowperson_ daddy. Respect all genders!” Jackson said, small frown on his face.

“Oh of course, we’ll make a snowperson,” Klaus nodding, making the frown turn into his dimpled smile.. “How silly of daddy.”

So it started. Jackson had fun rolling the snow round, making a ball for the bottom part of the snow person almost as tall as he was. “The next one needs to be smaller, baby.” Before too long Dave and Klaus had too lift the next snow ball on top of the bottom one. Then a third one for the head. Jackson ran and found some sticks for the arms. 

“Scarf daddy!” Jackson said.

Klaus sighed. He took his scarf off and put it on the snowperson. Dave shot him a look, “I’ve made a lot of scarves, dear. Don’t worry. I was going to donate some to the homeless shelter soon, I’ll just replace mine with one of those.”

Jackson circled their creation before declaring, “They’re perfect!” He clapped, Klaus noting the mittens soaked from the wet snow. Jackson’s nose was red, cheeks matching. 

“Time to go home for the day,” Klaus said. 

“But daddy!” Jackson started to argue.

Klaus didn’t want to stay out too long, causing Jackson to get sick. His boy was already cold, “Remember? We’ll have hot chocolate and the cookies you and Dave made when we get back.”

“One more snow angel?” Jackson asked.

“Okay, one more.” 

“Each! One more each!” Jackson said.

They agreed, so after one more snow angel each (making Klaus miss his scarf), they went back to the apartment.

Klaus wrapped Jackson up in a blanket when they got back. All of them had gotten chilled to the bone, but now the snuggling would be better. Dave and Jackson picked out a plate of cookies while Klaus warmed up some hot chocolate.

Gathering together, Jackson between the two adults, they got comfortable on the sofa. They found a Christmas movie to watch. Jackson fell asleep a little ways into the movie, having tuckered himself out while playing earlier.

“I think was a successful snow day,” Klaus said, happily staring at his son. 

“I would have to agree,” Dave smiled. “Thank you for letting me spend it with you.”

Klaus turned to look at him, “Of course. It’s better with you here, Dave.” His life was better with Dave there beside him. 

“I love you Klaus--”

“I love you too.”

“And I love Jackson. You two have made my life so much more _sparkly_ than I’d ever dreamed it. 

Klaus laughed quietly, “You know what I’d like for Christmas?” He asked quickly, feeling bold.

“What’s that?” Dave asked, voice pitched low.

“For you to move in. If you wanted, that was,” Klaus backtracked, suddenly feeling dumb. “I mean, I know living with a four year old, let alone me, would be--”

“I would love to,” Dave interrupted. “My lease is up in the new year. Starting next year, _here_ with the two of you? I can’t think of anything better.”

Klaus grinned, “It’s settled then. Gonna have to get used to mornings though, if the suns up, my son’s up.”

Dave laughed, “It’ll be worth it.”

They went back to watching the movie, both feeling loved and content. Before too long, the three of them were all asleep on the sofa, the tv casting them in a warm glow.

**Author's Note:**

> obliqueoptimism @ tumblr


End file.
